The ballad of Stoner Steve and Wading in the Abandoned Concept Art

 

 

Starting as I mean to go on with more seals and here's the latest addition to the herd, it's Stoner Steve! He was a bit worse for wear when I got him but he's been cleaned, and he's currently drying off on the windowsill, in the sunshine, with the dehumidifier nearby for good measure, and he's good as new. Maybe he's just world-weary and hangdog, but where my brain immediately went is "Bloody hell, this lad has been on some fuckin' good gear!"

Now onto the point of the post; there was recently a thread on ComicFury about abandoned concepts for comics, and while putting together a post for that, something clicked in my head regarding Wade in the Flood which was "Oh shit, I've cut way too much out of this story."

On one hand, I was going for a minimalist vibe but there's a difference between minimal and empty. To my mind, an effective stripped-down narrative suggests a glimpse of something where it feels like there's much more going on outside the scope of the story, such as in Shadow of the Colossus, for example. With where my story was going, it was just a bit like I'd lobbed the cosmic horror out with the bathwater, and it needs rebalancing. That said, I don't want to spend too much time fixing these issues, it is just meant to be a short-term project, so I've decided to just reintroduce some elements that got cut, including a little intermission with the background lore, for the sake of pacing and context. In the meantime, here's some old concept art for Ichor, the earlier versions of this story from between 2018 and 2024.

Assorted characters from the earliest version, including a Ganges river dolphin who inexplicably lived out at sea, and Jonesy's adoptive father, Dave.

The werewolf lad who is responsible for Everything Being Fucked. I didn't want this story to feel didactic but if you absolutely must read a message into it, then let the interpretation be that pursuing power at any cost is an arsehole move and in this case, it has colossally destructive consequences.

Imogen, a very old character. She took up residence in an earlier version of this story because she fit the aesthetic more than anything. 

 The Crossing Stones; these represented a point of no return after the island was sealed off. Getting there was only possible by traversing a sort-of isthmus that was only accessible under very specific, ritualistic circumstances (although they had a much more earthly source of inspiration, the crossing to the Hillbre islands, which is only accessible at low tide.)

 And I'm just going to copy the notes from the forum post for this one: In the earliest version of this current iteration, selkies were involved and it was going to be one of the ancestors of the current generation of selkies that caused the problems, but that just felt a bit too contrived and I am really not confident with drawing people nowadays, so I decided to take it easy and cut this aspect of the story in the interest of getting it done sometime this century. Alas, Phaios' cosmic-horror-kicking training montage with his adoptive parents had to get the chop!

That's all for now, it's time for another G&T and in the Friday tradition: have a lovely weekend, everyone! 🌟